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Another charge to travel in London?

19 December 2020

A £3.50 Greater London boundary charge is being considered in addition to the existing £15 congestion charge and £12.50 Ultra Low Emission Zone (ULEZ) in central London which is due to expand to the suburbs on October 25 2021. 

Transport for London (TfL) has seen its income collapse due to the coronavirus pandemic, and Mayor of London Sadiq Khan is now looking for ways to restore TfL’s finances. Though the feasibility of another charge is being investigated, it would not be implemented for at least two years, giving the economy time to first recover from the pandemic.

Sadiq Khan has called on the Government to allow TfL to keep the £500m raised annually from Vehicle Excise Duty (VED) charged to London-based drivers, instead of introducing a new boundary charge. 

The Mayor of London said “Londoners pay £500m worth of vehicle excise duty every year, which is then spent on maintaining roads outside the capital.

“It is not fair on London that our drivers should subsidise the rest of the country’s roads and get nothing in return.

“The Government must allow London to retain its share of VED and to support the capital’s transport system properly as in other world cities.”

The Mayor is also reportedly considering other options, such as:

• Scrapping the Night Tube and the “Boris bike” cycle hire scheme
• Axing bus routes in the suburbs
• Reforming TfL’s employee pension scheme
• Retaining the ban on free travel for pensioners in the morning peak
• Closing some Tube stations at weekends.

It has been estimated that the £3.50 boundary charge on the 1.3 million vehicle trips made every weekday through Greater London would raise £500m annually to be reinvested in London’s transport network, which would compensate for the revenue from VED charges lost. 

Sadiq Khan said that the charge could reduce incoming traffic to Greater London by 10-15% and therefore help to manage congestion.

To incentivise drivers to switch to greener vehicles, those who drive the worst polluting vehicles could face a higher boundary charge in Greater London.

We at Marshall Leasing are pleased to keep our customers up to date with the latest motoring news. If you would like to find out more about our expert fleet management services, please get in touch at info@marshall-leasing.co.uk or call us on 01480 414541.

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